Calif. students break through locked gates to participate in gun violence walkout

Students pushed through the gates outside their California high school after school administrators tried to lock them inside during national student walkouts against gun violence, The Mercury News reported.  

Students around the world participated in a 17-minute walkout from class on Wednesday — the one-month anniversary of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. 

According to the Mercury News, school administrators in Concord, Calif., locked the gates surrounding Mount Diablo High School’s campus at before the planned 10 a.m. walkout.

However, a group of determined students pushed through the gates chanting “enough is enough,” and marched down the street. The group returned to campus after school officials threatened to call their parents. 

School staff quickly re-locked the broken gate. 

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Principal Lorne Barbosa told The Mercury News that he wasn’t strictly opposed to student protests, but didn’t expect students to participate because the student government had decided against planning a walkout. He told the paper that they were worried parents would be concerned their students participated and missed class time.

Reporter Annie Sciacca said a student told her she wanted to participate after seeing how widespread gun violence was across the country. 

“We don’t want our school to be the next one.” 

Administrators quickly ordered students back to campus. One student tells me she wanted to participate after seeing gun violence affect schools across the country. “We don’t want our school to be the next one.”

— Annie Sciacca (@AnnieSciacca) March 14, 2018

Student organizer Lila Souza told The Mercury News that she was disappointed the peaceful event took a more destructive turn. 

Other school administrators also attempted to block students from protesting, despite warnings from the American Civil Liberties Union. Just one student, Rosa Rodriquez, walked out of her school in New Jersey after their principal threatened students with suspension. 

Several high ranking members of Democratic leadership left the Capitol to join student protests on the Hill and around the White House in Washington, D.C.